Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Barricade philosophers. Several arrested in OWS demonstration. The Assange road

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A case of authority abuse, seconds after the shot above:

Known feminist and human rights activist Naomi Wolf is arrested "for standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown". The Guardianreported: “Feminist author detained after reportedly ignoring police warnings to stay off the street where Occupy Wall Street protesters were rallying”. Similar protests have taken place in many cities around the world. The demonstration in New York took place outside the Skylight Studios in Manhattan.

Barricade philosophers

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Authors and intellectuals have in general, or can chose, a variety of ways in participating with their political or ideological views in the struggle for more justice and human rights in our societies. Certainly, the kind or level of this participation is personal, or limited, and at times has to be anonymous or forced to be adapted to the circumstances of each individual. However, there is a clear distinction between those who, having the possibility for an active participation, abstain from the barricades and conform themselves with writing columns around fashionable societal issues or having their names figuring in publicized support-lists.

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A main difference habits in the decision as to whether taking risks, whether putting the own skin on line to defend the others’, to express in-real the solidarity with the principles we say to sustain. In my believe, this is what the term “barricade philosopher” – once referred to the own descriptions by German philosopher Karl Marx on the events of the Paris Commune uprisings around 1871 [events which inspired Delacroix's "Liberty leading people", at Louvre, left]. In fact, in his opus, The Civil War in France: The Paris Commune, [1] Karl Marx also praised the active participation of women in such demonstrations:

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“The real women of Paris showed again at the surface - heroic, noble, and devoted, like the women of antiquity. Working, thinking fighting, bleeding Paris - almost forgetful, in its incubation of a new society, of the Cannibals at its gates - radiant in the enthusiasm of its historic initiative!”

Naomi Wolf' presence in the barricades of 2011 is a certain sign of the lovely, brave, and effective positioning of true feminist intellectuals in the human-rights causes concerning the decent people of the world.

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Julian Assange’s road

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Julian Assange in the London anti-grid protests

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In the sixties and early seventies it was popularized among the young generations of social critics in Latin America a Spanish lyrics that meant, roads are those that people make with their walking (“caminante, el camino se hace al andar”). It was also an answer to old ideologies or cemented political strategies that never succeeded in bring about the new society of justice and freedom for all.

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Today we have a new strategy of the ideology of freedom and social justice. It was born out of civil courage. Its name is Transparency and bravery.

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And today is civil courage day, as it should continue for a time to come. For today is 327 days since Julian Assange has been under arrest, and 513 days since Manning has been kept detained, without trial.

And with warm regards to the senior readers of Professors blogg, this vintage picture of 1969 found in an old-documents box survived in Southern Chile's countryside.

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La lotta continua

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Marcello Ferrada-Noli

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References

[1] Marx, Karl. The Civil War in France: The Paris Commune. New York: International Publishers, 1984, pg. 68.

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